I will add more info regarding my problem: My Celestron nexstar 8se was working ok. On the Dec.24 I Ieft it for awhile in the open and it felt a fine rain. I dried up the telescopeand put it inside. A

As I said before the telescope does not give any details of the image it sees. I could see very clear images of the planets and stars, but due to this problem I cannot see anything clearly. I can see better using my own eyes than thru the telescope.

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I'm having the same problem with my Astromaster 114 EQ . I can see better than the scope , but it is clear when I focus on images about 35 40 away in the daylight. I am now ready to trash this thing. For I had a Meade many years ago and it was great ,but I gave it to a friend to use, but he broke it. Next time Meade.

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I also have an 8i, but decided not to upgrade the controls yet. I've had my scope for about four years. I have experienced the same problem and am not sure what what causes it. Some nights, the scope tracks alignment all night, other times it does not. When the later occurs, the only thing that helps is to repeat the alignment picking new targets. One night, I had to repeat alignment 3-4 times. Also, I highly recommend a book by Michael Swanson, "The Nexstar User's Guide". It's an easy read, very specific and keeps the novice in mind. It should be included with every Nexstar sold. Go online to: http://www.Nexstarsite.com. Hope this helps. John

If this is a Newtonian reflector or a catadioptric scope (Schmidt Cassegrain or Maksutov) you may be trying to use it at too low of a magnification. Your magnification needs to be high enough that the exit pupil is less than 5 mm; to figure this divide the focal length of the eyepiece by the f-ratio of the optical tube. If this quotient is 5 mm or more the black spot you are seeing is the shadow of the secondary mirror.

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This means that the hand control has lost communication with the electronics board within the base of the telescope.The
number following this message will indicate the address of the
component that has lost communication. 16 indicates the azimuth or RA
motor board, 17 the altitude (declination) motor board. Unfortunately,
this number doesn't tell why the error has occurred.

To
clear the no response messages, repeatedly press UNDO. This fix may be
only temporary and does not address the potential underlying problem.

The Rate Control only works for moving the telescope using the arrow keys. It does NOT work while doing an alignment, and GOTOs always slew at the max rate of 9.

For any other issues I would suggest you first RESET the hand controller and see if this corrects the problem and if NOT then reload the latest hand controller and or motor controller firmware, using the Celestron update cable and a computer.

bintangchris: error 16 indicates a bad Hand controller, you may need to buy another one, also check all your connections going to the head assembly.Also error 16/17 indicates the HC cant communicate with the the RA/DEC control boards. It may need to go back to Celestron for repair.SHT55